Andrew Tarantola

The recently-assembled super-committee tasked with saving the US from financial disaster by year's end wants to trade dollar bills for dollar...coins? Wait, don't we already have some of those that nobody uses?

This controversial plan has been floated before but has met with a tepid response from most Americans and strong lobbying efforts from both paper and mining industries (and the states in which those industries reside). However, a recent study by the Government Accountability Office found that the coin's longer lifetime—4.2 years vs. 22 months for bills—would translate into a $5.6 billion savings over the course of 30 years.

But what about the billions of dollars worth of Sacajawea coins the Mint made? Or the ones created through the 2005 Presidential $1 Coin Act? They're still sitting in storage at the Mint because nobody uses them.

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So why do Americans dislike the dollar coin? I can understand that both workers and supporters of the US Stripping Industry being against it for logistical reasons, but otherwise is it the shape, the heft, what?